Google shakes up management at search, AI units

San Francisco: John Giannandrea, the head of Google’s cornerstone web search unit, is stepping down from his role. Alphabet Inc.’s Google merged its search and artificial intelligence divisions in February 2016, placing the veteran computer scientist at the helm. Now that he’s moving aside, Google is splitting up the two groups again, the company said Monday. The internet giant is widely considered the technical leader in both fields, but is facing new threats from rivals like Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. with the advent of voice-based search devices.